As the sheriff of the small town of Shadows Landing, South Carolina, Granger usually dealt with ornery alligators, fights over the best BBQ style, and the occasional shoot-out when his friends brought trouble home. Granger watched those friends get married one at a time, but he knew that wasn’t his fate. An auto accident had left Granger with scarring that he hid under his uniform. Women seemed to cringe when they saw it, so Granger gave up on relationships. Then he lost his heart to the most confident, intelligent, and sexy woman he’d ever met. But what would a woman like that want with a damaged man like him? Olivia Townsend was a nightmare in heels in the courtroom. She was a lawyer for the two most powerful men in the country. She was used to taking down every opponent who crossed her. However, Olivia was now in the path of a stalker and his deadly game. It started with the feeling of being watched. Then the threatening notes began. But when the stalker tries to attack her, it is Granger Fox that saves her. As Granger and Olivia rush to stop the escalating threats, it’s not just bullets flying, but sparks too. Can Olivia find the strength to open her heart while Granger learns to trust again? And more importantly, can they do it before time runs out and the person behind it all gets tired of playing their game? Because in this game, there can be only one winner.
On a sunny fall afternoon in 1988, Jon Sarkin was playing golf when, without a whisper of warning, his life changed forever. As he bent down to pick up his golf ball, something strange and massive happened inside his head; part of his brain seemed to unhinge, to split apart and float away. For an utterly inexplicable reason, a tiny blood vessel, thin as a thread, deep inside the folds of his gray matter had suddenly shifted ever so slightly, rubbing up against his acoustic nerve. Any noise now caused him excruciating pain. After months of seeking treatment to no avail, in desperation Sarkin resorted to radical deep-brain surgery, which seemed to go well until during recovery his brain began to bleed and he suffered a major stroke. When he awoke, he was a different man. Before the stroke, he was a calm, disciplined chiropractor, a happily married husband and father of a newborn son. Now he was transformed into a volatile and wildly exuberant obsessive, seized by a manic desire to create art, devoting virtually all his waking hours to furiously drawing, painting, and writing poems and letters to himself, strangely detached from his wife and child, and unable to return to his normal working life. His sense of self had been shattered, his intellect intact but his way of being drastically altered. His art became a relentless quest for the right words and pictures to unlock the secrets of how to live this strange new life. And what was even stranger was that he remembered his former self. In a beautifully crafted narrative, award-winning journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Amy Ellis Nutt interweaves Sarkin’s remarkable story with a fascinating tour of the history of and latest findings in neuroscience and evolution that illuminate how the brain produces, from its web of billions of neurons and chaos of liquid electrical pulses, the richness of human experience that makes us who we are. Nutt brings vividly to life pivotal moments of discovery in neuroscience, from the shocking “rebirth” of a young girl hanged in 1650 to the first autopsy of an autistic savant’s brain, and the extraordinary true stories of people whose personalities and cognitive abilities were dramatically altered by brain trauma, often in shocking ways. Probing recent revelations about the workings of creativity in the brain and the role of art in the evolution of human intelligence, she reveals how Jon Sarkin’s obsessive need to create mirrors the earliest function of art in the brain. Introducing major findings about how our sense of self transcends the bounds of our own bodies, she explores how it is that the brain generates an individual “self” and how, if damage to our brains can so alter who we are, we can nonetheless be said to have a soul. For Jon Sarkin, with his personality and sense of self permanently altered, making art became his bridge back to life, a means of reassembling from the shards of his former self a new man who could rejoin his family and fashion a viable life. He is now an acclaimed artist who exhibits at some of the country’s most prestigious venues, as well as a devoted husband to his wife, Kim, and father to their three children. At once wrenching and inspiring, this is a story of the remarkable human capacity to overcome the most daunting obstacles and of the extraordinary workings of the human mind.
Fissures appear in the darkness. Shadows break, collapse, and crumble away to nothing, revealing that they are far more than the mere absence of light. Shadows are our friends. Shadows protect us. Because what lies behind the darkness is so much worse… The fourteen stories included in this collection: When God Opens a Door Zombie Dreams Portrait of a Horror Writer Waters Dark and Deep Met a Pilgrim Shadow Open House Extern ’Til Voices Drown Us Knock, Knock Outside the Lines Provider Broken Glass and Gasoline The Tongue is the Sweetest Meat Ghost in the Graveyard
A man reunites with his estranged, ailing father to learn the truth about his own tragic childhood in this mystery from “a very promising writer” (Sir Michael Parkinson, journalist and television presenter). In 1994, eleven-year-old Callum was abducted from his Wiltshire village. His body was found six months later by his older brother, Tom, near a Neolithic henge called the Shadowing Stones. It was the first in a series of events that would destroy Tom’s family; the boys’ father was a suspect but never charged, and their mother committed suicide a year later. Convinced his father was responsible for his brother’s death, Tom fled to Australia to start a new life. Now, almost three decades later, Tom learns that his father is dying of cancer. Knowing this may be his last chance to uncover the truth, Tom returns to England. But when childhood acquaintance, Anna, forms a bond with Tom, old feelings are stirred. As he’s reluctantly drawn closer to both Anna and his father, Tom is confronted with a series of shocking twists and revelations that will change his life forever.
An assassin, a powerful dagger, and a magic that shouldn't exist. Shadow magic is extinct. The Veil Worshippers who honor the shadow god's wall are hunted for their artifacts, including the Veil shards that break off the wall in Valisea. Brela vows to steal it all back. With the dagger of her people and a Veil shard embedded in her collarbone that has infected her with shadow-cursed magic, she is determined to keep her secrets or suffer a fate worse than death. That was a lot easier when the uptight and infuriatingly handsome Captain Cason Valkip wasn't hunting her. Cason has spent his entire life hiding--from the raids on Valisea, from his emotions, and from his multiple gods-blessed magics that everyone is afraid of... everyone except Brela. The chaotic, non-magic wielding assassin who drives him insane is also the only person who has never looked at his tainted magic without any ounce of fear. Which is why being forced to work with her to discover the source of the breaking wall sets his already uncontrollable fire magic ablaze. With tension growing in the remaining kingdoms and mythical beasts threatening her at every turn, Brela's secrets might not remain hidden for much longer. To survive, she will have to work with the one man who could burn her. Because if shadow hell is released, no one will be safe. For fans of Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass series, Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone, and Shelby Mahurin's Serpent & Dove series. Dive into this epic, enemies to lovers fantasy with magic, found family, and knives. Lots and lots of knives.
Trent Faulkner was happy working with his hands to build custom furniture. He had made a name for himself and his design company. Love wasn’t even on his radar. Then one client broke down his barriers, only to make him leave in the morning. Trent made a resolution to forget about her, but that was hard to do when she was everywhere he looked, including in his heart. Skye Jessamine might be America’s newest sweetheart, but she’s really just a small town girl who had been broken down by everyone around her so that they could mold her and her career into superstardom. Then a chance meeting with Trent Faulkner gave her a glimmer of happiness before it was ripped away from her. Skye’s willing to fight for love, but that’s not the only fight she has coming when she finally tries to break free of the spotlight. Skye can think of only one man to put her trust in when her life is in danger. They say love is worth fighting for and now Trent will do just that. Trent and Skye fight for their lives as they try to make it through the shadows hiding behind Hollywood’s bright lights. But are they prepared for what comes when those lights hit Shadows Landing?
Tinsley Faulkner loves art more than anything in the world. She’s a painter and owns an art gallery in the small town of Shadows Landing. But suddenly her life is changed when a man walks into the gallery looking to sell some art—art she knows is stolen. What she thinks is just a one-time thing quickly escalates into something so dangerous people have died for decades to protect it. Now Tinsley finds herself fighting for more than just her life, but to correct a historical wrong that’s affected generations of people. FBI Special Agent Paxton Kendry had just been transferred, against his will, to the Art Crimes division in Charleston from Atlanta’s violent gang task force. Something about his transfer never sat right with him, and he’s determined to get to the bottom of it. Only Tinsley Faulkner keeps sidetracking him. Instead of ignoring the feisty artist, he finds their verbal sparring matches invigorating. Until one day Tinsley stumbles onto something bigger than either of them could imagine. Now it’s up to Paxton to protect Tinsley as she finds herself in the middle of the most dangerous art heist of the century. But can he protect his heart along with her life, or will they disappear like the art Tinsley is willing to die to protect?
Everyone has a breaking point. Mina Tanner was once a converter, a human with telekinetic and telepathic abilities. After a vicious mental assault by an evil shadowmind stripped her of her powers, she was forced to flee her home to escape her attacker. Now, she's trying to start a new life in San Francisco, far away from any and all reminders of the gifts she grew up using. But her precariously balanced "normal" life topples as her apartment and her job fall victim to a new luxury development. Jackson Herring, an old family friend and powerful converter, offers Mina his spare bedroom while she gets on her feet, and she agrees…reluctantly. Mina's finding it difficult enough to adjust without a daily reminder of what she's lost, especially when that reminder is six-foot-four, super-talented and gorgeous. When a mugger attacks her and she somehow burns his hands, Mina realizes that despite everything she's lost, she may have gained something far more powerful—and dangerous—than she ever imagined. And when the rest of the shadowmind community learns about it, Mina will find herself on the run once again. Book three of The Shadowminds 93,000 words
About the Book The Corrupt Shadows is the second volume in the immense Shadow saga. Your favorite storyteller is back to continue with more of our hero’s adventure. The Shadow race is growing, with new adversaries, friendships, and alliances. The Corrupt Shadows is filled with more action as the Shadow Runner family becomes what the late Doctor envisioned. Follow as BIO-TEC declares war on our hero and his team. Learn new secrets from the past along with a few mysteries. With the team at full strength, will they be able to overcome these new challenges? Only time will tell. At the end, you will realize we have only scratched the surface. About the Author Author and storyteller Michael G. Dunkley Jr. is excited to bring part two to his Shadow saga to the world. Writing provides him peace in this chaotic world. At the end of a day or week, he finds time to sit down and reflect, putting life into his perspectives and encourages his friends and family. Michael G. Dunkley Jr. is loved and supported by his five beautiful children. They drive him to follow his dream and fuel him with ideas.
